Call-out for a meeting of groups and networks involved in migration struggles

Call-out for a meeting of groups and networks involved in migration struggles in the UK and beyond.

Some of No Borders South Wales and former Bristol No Borders have been working together to restart No Borders groups in this part of the UK. We’d like to invite people from around the UK, and involved in different networks and groups active in migrant justice, to Bristol, for a discussion of how we can better unite around ongoing campaigns and struggles.

Many of us are involved in:

• Anti-raids
• Campaigns against detention
• Anti-deportation campaigning
• Solidarity with people in Calais and Morocco and other flashpoints
• Campaigns against destitution

We want to talk about ‘where next’ for many of these campaigns and how we can be stronger together and reach out to more people who may agree with us at the same time.

The proposal for the weekend is as following:

Saturday 25th April

6:30pm – 7:30pm

Meet-up after the ‘Resistance Struggles against Immigration Controls in Europe’ by Tracing Movements films at Hydra Bookshop. (Part of the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair 2015)

For those people already in Bristol for the bookfair, we will meet at Hydra bookshop and go to a pub together to kick-off the discussions around networking and solidarity between the groups. We may have some focus on where next for a local group, but the meeting is open to all and will be taken up largely with a ‘go-around’ and introductions. This will also be a chance for anyone who can’t stay for the whole weekend to feed into the discussions the next day.

Join us for a Kebele Brunch to help kick-off the after-party hangover for some, and kick-off exploring the possibility again of a radical and inclusive UK network for all!

No Borders activists in the UK last met in London in 2012 as part of a week long convergence. Since then Movement for Justice has built a UK-wide network of activists, and other migrant solidarity groups sprung up in Cardiff, Manchester and Brighton, among other places.

Proposed programme:

11am – Vegan brunch (plus introductions?)

11:30 – 12:30pm – Updates from different UK city or region groups and report-backs from Calais and No Borders Morocco.

12:30pm – 1:10pm – Working session one – splitting into two groups
1) Working towards a UK Convergence this summer – do we have the capacity for an indoor or outdoor convergence?
2) Building the campaign to end detention in the UK – what can we do to work better together?

1:10pm – 1:20pm – Fag, coffee and tea break.

1:20pm – 2pm – Working session two – again splitting into two groups
1) What next for No Borders internationally? How can we work to build a global movement?
2) Exploring the possibility further of a Bristol and south Wales No Borders group. (This could also be moved to 6:30pm)

2pm – around 2:30pm – Summing up the working sessions, concluding discussions, and discussion on future meetings.